Tag: year

🎉 Happy New Year! 🎉

I hope you all had a fabulous evening celebrating! I spent yesterday over in Scarborough watching Ed in Panto, then we had a gorgeous night in with steak & homemade chips and good telly…but enough of that; I have my ‘1 Second a Day’ video to share with you!

So at the beginning of 2018, I saw a few friends sharing ‘1 Second a Day’ videos from 2017 – one second of film or a photo from every day for an entire year. They were so lovely to watch and it seemed like such a nice way to remember the year – so I started my own for 2018!

AND I’M SO GLAD I DID!…

…I had no idea when I started this little project just how special 2018 would be. As well as some amazing opportunities with work, getting SO into blogging, making new friends and generally just learning so much more, it was a year of epic life events! Getting engaged, booking our wedding, and moving into our first house…it was busy, and at times stressful, but ridiculously amazing 💖

It’s been really nice to capture a little segment of every day of my life for the last 12 months, and watching it back has actually felt quite heart warming! I’ve remembered moments and days that would’ve been lost forever, and it’s been so fun! If anyone was wondering about doing one for 2019, I’d highly recommend it!

We managed to get through the random limbo week between Christmas and New Year, and 2018 is here!

An excellent time for reflection, to take count of what you have, what you’ve accomplished, and also maybe what you haven’t accomplished yet.

Credit: Graham Hebron Photography

I said it last year, but I don’t like to make resolutions. They feel very formal and easily breakable – perhaps we set ourselves too big a challenge, expect too much from ourselves in a short period of time. I’m no expert, I’m just going on personal experience. Instead, I like to decide upon something I’d like to try to alter slightly…

12 months ago, I said I wanted to spend less of my time on social media, especially as I use it for work. And d‘you know what, I’m quite proud of myself, because I managed to do that. I’m not saying I stayed off it completely, not at all. But I spent less of my free time mindlessly scrolling.

This year, I want to keep that up, plus I have a new ‘want’.

To say I’m a dancer/dance teacher with a Musical Theatre degree – I’m shocking at going to see shows. In 2017, I think I only went to the theatre 5 or 6 times, 3 of which happened in December, and one show I saw twice! (Obviously I’m not counting being in the theatre for work). That’s pretty bad. It’s a tricky one to be honest with you, because of work having such anti social hours – particularly for theatre visits! But I really want to make the effort to see more. Because I love it. And if I love it, I need to do it, right?

Image captured during Queen and Adam Lambert’s gig at Leeds First Direct Arena, December 2017

The other thing is just to make sure I find time for myself. This job can become incredibly consuming if you let it, which I did for a section of last year – it was near impossible to find free time, and I felt a little suffocated. I’ve been better in the last couple of months, and I will always commit 110% to whatever I’m doing at the time. I just think it’s so important to allow yourself the down time – learn when to say yes or no. And that yes or no can be applied either to work, social life or activities. None of us want to let people down, it’s just learning (for the sake of our own sanity), when we need to take the day off from running round like a headless chicken, and sit down by ourselves with a book and a cuppa. OR, when we need to say yes; to allow someone or something the ability to distract us and let our minds chill out for a while!

I was incredibly lucky to have the best year of my life. I got myself a couple of new jobs and classes that I love, I got to work with new, amazingly talented people, I made friends with some genuinely good souls, I learned to drive, passed my test and got a car, and I got the guy. My best friend of 8 years and the most incredible person. On reflection of 2017, I can’t recall a time I was this happy.

I wish you all the very best for 2018, and I’ll do my best to keep my blog up to date – I know I’ve been terrible recently at keeping a flow going. I’m now up to 6 days of work per week so I don’t know how I’ll be fixed for free time to dedicate to this…but I’ll try 😊

Lynette x

Well then! Happy New Year to you all! I can’t believe how fast 2016 went – I observed with several people over the last couple of months that each year seems to go quicker than the last. Can you remember when we were at school and the terms dragged onnnnnn and onnnnnn and onnnnnn. It felt like we spent our entire lives there. Half terms were only actually 6 weeks long! Now, 6 weeks goes by in the blink of an eye. Weird.

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Year and spent it as you wanted, whether that be with friends, family, or colleagues (for those of you out there who had to work) 😦 It’s such a nice feeling to have friends and family come back home for Christmas. The feeling of the place changes and you easily pick up and adopt old traditions. Whether that’s an annual party (big nod to the Corrins, you hosted an excellent party, as always), games day, night at the pub, countryside walk or quick cafe visit.

And whilst there are plenty of nice traditions…there ARE a couple that crop up every year, that you pray you’ll maybe escape this time…

The DVDs/tapes that are brought out, of you and your sibling/siblings as kids…

The quizzing from the grandparents about why you don’t have a boyfriend…

Losing at Monopoly. Every. Year.

Nevertheless, it’s a wonderful time of the year and regardless of the negatives, we know we’ll look forward to it just as much next year.

So, Christmas is over, you’ve stuffed yourself with left overs, drunk enough Baileys to fill a bath and struggled with the random limbo week where we don’t know what to do. Now comes the New Year. For me, New Years has never been anything special. But this year, I’m home and I got to spend it with exactly who I wanted. Not watching High School Musical 1-3 back to back in my studio flat in Hammersmith (yeh, I saw in 2016 really well, don’t be jealous) 😉

Which brings us to New Years resolutions. I understand that a New Year seems an appropriate time to make lifestyle adjustments. But a ‘Resolution’ feels like such a big title – we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to achieve something, which is sometimes unachievable (‘I want to quit this, I want to quit that’). As with any change, I feel baby steps are the way to do it. So instead, I like to acknowledge what makes me happy, andif there’s anything about my life I’d like to change. The main one for 2017: I want to spend less time on social media in my spare time (especially now that parts of my work are heavily based/dependent on it). I think the majority of us can put our hands up and admit we could make better use of the time spent aimlessly scrolling. Pass me a book.

2016 was a strange year for me. A lot happened. Lots of big life decisions – but I’m happy with the decisions I made. I’m going into 2017 happy, with a job I love, in the place I love, surrounded by the people I love. It’s a new chapter. And I can’t wait to see what the year brings.

Sending best wishes for 2017 to you all,Lynette x

P.S. New Year, New You (please forgive me for saying that) – I have new adult classes starting at Studio 3! Dance classes for beginnersandfitness classes for all abilities! I’m so looking forward to these, ESPECIALLY after piling on the Christmas pounds! :’) For more information, head to my Instagram (lynette_s3dance) or search for Studio 3 Dance Workshop on Facebook 🙂

Hello my loves, welcome to 'life with Lynette'! I'm a frizzy, halloumi loving dance teacher/choreographer, living in North Yorkshire. I've recently given my little corner of the internet a fresh lick of paint, so enjoy my ramblings on work, lifestyle, adulting...and maybe a bit of wedding prep too! Grab a cuppa and get comfy...